Creating the World's Most Secure Industry-Standard Servers

With cyberattacks rising and end users demanding technologies that create new risks, protecting servers at the software layer is no longer enough. Drive security down to the hardware layer with HPE Secure Compute.

Even cyber weapons are now in play across the globe and right here in the U.S. Such attacks are indicative of how much the threat landscape is increasing and how attacks are growing in sophistication. Businesses of all sizes and government agencies need to be on alert, 24/7.

60% of the small businesses that suffer cyberattacks go out of business within six months.

The $9.5M average annualized incident cost is on the rise, increasing 21% over the previous year.

At the same time, the IoT along with mobility and hybrid IT environments are driving greater business productivity. This opens organizations to even more risks. CISOs and their InfoSec teams must also consider the increasingly-complex regulatory landscape—compliance is critical for both increasing IT network security and reducing the cost of compliance failures.

IT security solutions must go beyond the software layer

Protecting servers at the software layer is no longer enough. To stay ahead of and prevent threats from successfully breaching networks, you must also protect their hardware components.

This requires deploying new levels of protection that drive IT security management all the way down to the supply chain level. Assessing the security level of a server requires considering the vulnerabilities across the manufacturer’s supply chain. Other potential sources must also be considered, such as the running code and the server data I/O on the network. Any server that’s even indirectly connected to the Internet should be protected.

Utilizing the information NIST provides will help you combat denial-of-service attacks, malicious code, and Web-based attacks, which are all contributing to the rise of cybercrime. When it comes to hardware security, it’s not just about keeping people out; the focus needs to be on protecting the assets of your company.

Protecting servers with the silicon root of trust

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has devised a strategy to help you take on this challenge by delivering protection at the hardware layer—through our unique server firmware protection, detection, and recovery capabilities. We began with one of the strongest firmware security statements in the industry when we introduced our 9th generation platforms.

As the 10th generation comes to the market, we are increasing physical security with the most secure servers on in the market. In addition to adhering to NIST best practices, each HPE server has a silicon root of trust burned into its silicon components on the motherboard, making our servers literally impossible to compromise. The system cannot boot without this circuitry.

The root of trust begins with the HPE iLO management controller, an HPE-specific design that is much more advanced than generic controllers offered by other vendors. HPE iLO’s intellectual property is owned solely by HPE, and we own the firmware as well—backed by a strict process for both access and sign-off on changes.

The fact that HPE designs and produces its own servers is a huge differentiator. Even the software operating environment for iLO is uniqe. iLO utilizes HPE-controlled software tools, making it more difficult to compromise compared to generic Linux-based tools that most server vendors use for their management controllers.

We have also applied additional enhancements that further increase the level of physical security that our servers provide. This includes Enterprise Secure Key Management, which secures storage, servers, and the cloud together to drive security consistency across distributed enterprises. And to protect data at rest, HPE 3Par storage features self-encrypting drives that work through SMART array controllers to automatically encrypt data. This feature can help bring your business into compliance for most major regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA.

To find out more about how the world's most secure industry-standard servers can drive security down to the hardware layer for your organization, follow us on Twitter at @HPE Servers.

Bob_Moore

Bob leads the partner software organization for the server division. His team is also responsible for productizing the new HPE security technologies and delivering a comprehensive approach to security across all solutions.